Mega Man
Mega Man, known as Rockman (ロックマン Rokkuman, from the phrase "Rock 'n Roll") in Japan, also known as Mega or Rock in his original form, is the title character of what has been referred to as the "Classic" Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. The pixel art for Mega Man was created by the designer of the original game in the series, Akira Kitamura (credited under the pseudonym "A.K"), and later turned into a refined illustration by Keiji Inafune. Since then, he has become one of the company's primary original characters and continues to be one of the video game industry's most recognizable icons. Having appeared on many gaming systems since the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Man has had a wide gaming audience, and his games continue to evolve with the ever-changing hardware demands of modern gaming systems. Mega Man's fictional universe can be divided into seven categories, each featuring different variations and incarnations of the same blue hero. Although "Mega Man," or "Rockman," is usually the name used to describe only the original Mega Man from the classic series, it can also be used less specifically to describe the Mega Man series of fictional works, or the group of adherently named main characters within. Description Outside of his armor, Rock appears as a ten year-old boy with spikey hair, the color of which varies between games from black to brown. His armor however resembles that of most other Robot Masters in that it's a skin-tight bodysuit with large rounded coverings on the lower arms and legs, and typical 'superhero briefs'. Mega Man's primary color is light blue with a dark blue 'trim' (his arms, legs, helmet and 'briefs'). His helmet has a raised light blue square in the forehead and a light blue ridge running straight back from the square, resembling an exclamation mark. His helmet also features round light blue sections with red circles in the center over his ears, likely his receivers. He also has red circles in his Mega Buster and below his feet. Something unique to Rock alone amongst his future and alternate counterparts, is that he's the only Mega Man with blue eyes, while most of the others have green ones (or brown in the case of Geo and red in the case of Copy X). History Mega Man Dr. Albert W. Wily, an old colleague of Dr. Light's, grew jealous when his projects were always overshadowed by his self-proclaimed rival. He constructed a robot factory in the Pacific and began to plot to conquer the world. Wily stumbled upon Proto Man one day, who was dying when his energy system was malfunctioning. He repaired him, and while analyzing him he discovered that he had found a way to create robots at the same level as Dr. Light. He decided to reprogram Dr. Light's industrial robots to exact revenge. One day, the industrial robots became misled and forced under his rule. With his new followers, Wily seized control of the city and demanded recognition. This string of events, set in motion, what would later become the purpose for Mega Man's existence. Realizing that it would be very difficult for the armies to stop Wily, Dr. Light knew something had to be done. Rock, having a strong sense of justice, volunteered to be converted from his current state as a lab assistant into a fighting robot. Thus, from that day forth, he became known as "Rockman" (Mega Man in the US & Europe). From that day forward Mega Man volunteered himself for action against crime and serving to support and protect mankind's existence and coexistence with robots within society. Mega Man fights and destroys each of the Robot Masters before journeying to Wily's fortress to defeat him once and for all. Mega Man eventually wins the battle, but Wily bows down and begs for forgiveness, which Mega Man grants. Mega Man then walks home to meet Dr. Light and Roll. Mega Man 2 After the events of the first Mega Man game, Dr. Wily somehow returned with a new fortress and eight of his own combat robots, designed specifically for destroying Mega Man. Mega Man defeats all eight Robot Masters and Dr. Wily himself. After Wily begs for mercy, Mega Man spares him and returns home...again. Mega Man 3 Some time later, Dr. Wily claims to have changed and teams up with Dr. Light to create a giant peacekeeping robot called Gamma. However, the new Robot Masters created to mine the Energy Elements needed for Gamma's construction have gone out of control. Mega Man goes after them, meeting his brother, Proto Man (under the alias Break Man in this game, until the ending) along the way. Mega Man soon retrieves the crystals, but returns to discover that Dr. Wily has stolen Gamma and plans on using it to take over the world. Mega Man defeats Gamma and foils Wily's plan again, and the mad doctor is seemingly killed by debris of his fortress at the end. (Wily's UFO can be seen flying in the ending, revealing he had survived.) Mega Man 4 One day, Dr. Light received a message from a scientist named Dr. Cossack, challenging Light and Mega Man to a contest to see whose robots were better. Dr. Cossack's Robot Masters started causing chaos and Mega Man went out to stop them. After defeating the Robot Masters, Mega Man goes to Dr. Cossack's Citadel to confront him. Upon defeating the scientist's final machine, however, he discovers that not all is as it seems... In truth, Cossack was being forced into his criminal acts because his daughter, Kalinka, had been kidnapped by Wily (who was very much alive). Luckily, Proto Man betrays Wily and rescues her, allowing Mega Man to head for Wily's new fortress and defeat him once more. This time, however, Wily was able to escape. Mega Man 5 Mega Man discovers, to his shock, that Proto Man has kidnapped Dr. Light and a new group of Robot Masters under his command were attacking the city. As usual, Mega Man heads out to save the day and get to the bottom of Proto Man's strange behavior. After defeating the Robot Masters and navigating Proto Man's Castle, Mega Man confronts Proto Man. At first, his opponent gets the better of him, as Mega Man is reluctant to hurt his ally, but the real Proto Man shows up and reveals the fake as Dark Man 4, who Mega Man defeats with ease. After defeating Dark Man, Dr. Wily appears and reveals himself as the creator of Dark Man. Saying that he is holding Dr. Light captive at his castle, Wily challenges Mega Man to come after him. Yet again, Mega Man goes to Wily's castle and defeats him once more. But the fortress starts to collapse and Mega Man, using his super strength, tries to hold it up. Wily escapes while Mega Man is distracted, but Proto Man comes in and rescues Mega Man and Dr. Light. Mega Man 6 An event called the 1st Annual Robot Tournament, sponsored by the billionaire Mr. X, is held. Everything seems fine as the contest begins, but when the top eight robots enter the arena for the final event, Mr. X appears and reveals he had reprogrammed the eight robots to use them to take over the world. Mega Man goes to stop Mr. X and his army of robots, defeating the Robot Masters and battling Mr. X atop his castle. As it turns out, Mr. X is only an alter ego for Mega Man's nemesis, Dr. Wily. Thus, Mega Man battles Wily and puts a stop to his plans once again. This time, he finally apprehends the mad doctor, sending Wily to prison. Mega Man 7 Unfortunately, Dr. Wily had planned for even this outcome. Six months after Wily's defeat and imprisonment, it is revealed he had four robots hidden away. These robots are activated remotely and break Wily out of prison. Mega Man arrives upon the scene and encounters Bass, a humanoid robot, and Treble, his robotic wolf. Mega Man and Bass get into a short battle, apparently impressing the latter with his skill. Bass claims he is trying to stop Wily as well and comments that Mega Man might not need his help before leaving. After defeating four of the Robot Masters, Mega Man finds out Wily is attacking the robot museum and has stolen one Guts Man. He attempts to intercept the villain, but is delayed when Wily deploys a clown-like robot to battle him. Mega Man finds Bass again, injured in a fight. Mega Man takes him back to Dr. Light for repairs. However, when Mega Man returns to the lab, he finds the lab has been damaged by Bass, who has also stolen blueprints for the Super Adapter intended for Mega Man and Rush. Dr. Wily appears on the screen and reveals that Bass and Treble are his creations. Mega Man then heads to Wily's castle to stop his latest plan. Along the way, he fights Bass, using a similar version of the Super Adapter with Treble. Mega Man then confronts Wily and defeats him again. As always, Wily begs for forgiveness, but Mega Man points his Mega Buster at him, saying he does not trust Wily and plans on killing him. Dr. Wily, scared out of his wits, reminds Mega Man that robots cannot harm humans. In the original Japanese version, Mega Man is speechless. In the English version, he replies that he is "more than just a robot." Before Mega Man can pull the trigger, Bass and Treble appear and rescue Wily. Mega Man then leaves Wily's fortress as it goes up into flames, clearly conflicted about what happened. Mega Man 8 During a city battle against Bass, Mega Man is called away to investigate an island uncharted by any maps. After defeating a hermit crab-like robot, he finds Dr. Wily, who reveals that the island was his base before absconding with an orb of strange purple energy. Although unable to stop Wily's escape, Mega Man finds a badly damaged robot in a crater and takes it back to Dr. Light's lab. While the robot is brought in for repairs, Dr. Light informs Mega Man that Dr. Wily is at it again, with four brand-new Robot Masters attacking locations all over the globe. As Mega Man defeats each of the Robot Masters, he finds capsules of the strange energy Dr. Wily took from the island. When he returns to the lab, he gives the samples to Dr. Light for study, but the robot he found earlier breaks free and heads out to the desert. Mega Man goes after him and briefly fights him, but realizes that his opponent is holding back. Before he can consider it further, the robot flees and Proto Man appears, telling him that Wily's new headquarters is up ahead. Mega Man goes to the "Wily Tower," but is captured by a massive robot. He is then saved by the strange robot he battled earlier, who introduces himself as Duo and explains his mission to destroy all "Evil Energy" in the universe. Duo informs Mega Man that the other robot contained Evil Energy within it, which Wily was using to make his robots more powerful. He also told the hero that Wily Tower was protected by a forcefield linked to four more Robot Masters hidden around the world. As Duo left to secure the rest of the Evil Energy around the world, Mega Man set out to defeat the other four Robot Masters and foil Wily's latest plan. In the end, Mega Man defeated the remaining Robot Masters and infiltrated Wily's fortress. Along the way, Bass challenges him to a duel, having used Evil Energy to increase his power, but Mega Man emerges triumphant once more. When he fights his way to Dr. Wily, he is caught in an energy trap, but is saved by the actions of Duo and Proto Man. Mega Man tells his Proto Man to help Duo recover while he takes on Wily's newest machine. As usual, Mega Man destroys the latest incarnation of the Wily Machine, leaving Wily on the ground begging for forgiveness. As Mega Man berates Wily for trying the same old ruse after so many failures, he is taken over by the Evil Energy in Wily's machine as the tower collapsed around them. However, Duo saved Mega Man and destroyed the evil energy within him. He leaves before Mega Man wakes up, but Proto Man informs him of Duo's final message to the Blue Bomber: "Thank you". Mega Man & Bass A new robot named King, claiming to be the strongest robot in the world, began to recruit other robots to form a new Robot Army. Mega Man went to stop King, aided-to his surprise-by Bass, who took offense to King's claims of being the strongest robot. After defeating the eight new Robot Masters and King himself, it is revealed that King was created by Dr. Wily, who Mega Man and Bass defeat once more. Mega Man 9 Several years later, new robots were causing havoc around the world, all created by Dr. Light. Mega Man quickly volunteered to clear Light's name and was sent out to investigate the source of the problem. Soon, the police came to arrest Dr. Light. Meanwhile, Mega Man went after the Robot Masters and, after he defeated a few of them, discovered that they were scheduled to be decommissioned and sent to the junkyard because they had reached the expiration date assigned to them by the government. Once the final robot had been taken down, Mega Man brought back one of the robot's Memory Circuit Board to Auto for investigation. As it turned out, Dr. Wily had reprogrammed the robots, who were scheduled for demolition, to rise up against their human masters rather than be destroyed. Mega Man then went to Dr. Wily's castle and defeated Dr. Wily again. Dr. Wily, as usual, begged Mega Man for forgiveness. Mega Man responded to this by having Rush play clips of all the times Wily had done the same routine (The clips being scenes from previous games). Although Wily seemed contrite and apologetic, he tricked Mega Man into thinking that Dr. Light was, in fact, imprisoned in a jail cell in the next room. Although Proto Man appeared and warned him that it was a trap, Mega Man went to investigate the cell and was electrocuted by the fake Light robot and Wily set his hideout to self-destruct. Proto Man saved Mega Man, but Wily escaped yet again. Mega Man 10 Mega Man is enjoying his day until Roll falls ill with Roboenza. At first, he believes that Wily is behind the epidemic, but Wily claims that he had found the cure, only to have it stolen by eight out-of-control Robot Masters. After defeating them all, Mega Man learns that Dr. Wily actually was behind the Roboenza epidemic all along. He succumbs to Roboenza himself, but Roll gives him her saved medicine to give him the strength to defeat Wily. After Mega Man defeats Wily, the doctor becomes sick. Mega Man asks Wily if he has been infected with the Roboenza and Wily answers that he is a human, not a robot. Despite this opportunity to finally end Wily's evil schemes once and for all, Mega Man's heroic nature wins out and he takes Wily to a hospital. The mad scientist immediately broke out after recovering, but left behind enough of the cure to restore all of the robots infected with Roboenza. This would imply that Dr. Wily does in fact have some kindness in him. Personality Mega Man's personality seems to stem from his creator, Dr. Light, whose intention may have been to design Rock based on his own interpretation of a real boy as if it were his very own son. Rock, who would later be upgraded into the super fighting robot known as Mega Man, demonstrates a wide range of emotions, similar to that of a prepubescent boy, not typical of other robots, thus making him unique. Mega Man's primarily extremely courageous and just, choosing to become Mega Man and face the threat Wily posed because he wanted to help and do the right thing. This said he's also a pacifist and in the Mega Man Powered Up pre-boss cutscenes he always tried to find an alternative to violence. This trait was also, to a degree, shown in Mega Man 8 where he questioned Bass as to why they must fight. Along with these traits he's also kind, generous and polite. However, Wily's frequent false repentances have become a constant frustration to Mega Man who appears to developing less patience with him, something that came to a head in the course of Mega Man 7 where he contemplated killing him, though ultimately decided against it. He further pointed out Wily's previous false repentances at the end of Mega Man 9, showing his diminishing patience, however he nonetheless assists him when he becomes ill in Mega Man 10. Abilities As a robot, Rock appears to possess abilities higher than a mundane human to an unknown extent. His only kenned assailment is the Mega Kick utilized in Mega Man Powered Up, a puissant kick that causes more damage than standard buster shots. In the Mega Man comic book series by Archie Comics, Rock has the ability to replicate implements, much homogeneous to he can facsimile Special Weapons as Mega Man. When modified into the combat robot Mega Man, his abilities are enhanced, ostensibly possessing superhuman vigor, reflexes, and durability, which are exhibited in most games in the series. *Mega Buster (ロックバスター Rock Buster) - Mega Man's main weapon, a potent arm cannon that fires solar bullets. In Mega Man 4 it gained the ability to charge energy to fire more puissant shots. It additionally received other upgrades and functions in different games, such as the Mega Arm in Mega Man V and Laser Shot in Mega Man 8. *Mega Upper (ロックアッパー? Rock Upper) - A potent uppercut utilized by Mega Man in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. *Slide - A move utilized for speed, dodging, and at times assailing. *Weapon Copy System - Mega Man can replicate the Special Weapon of Robot Masters, conventionally after subjugating them. **Besides the Special Weapons obtained from authoritative figures, Mega Man can withal use other weapons and abilities obtained by different designates, such as the Magnet Beam and Mega Ball. *In Mega Man 6, "adapters" were introduced that sanctioned Mega Man to fuse with other robots, mainly the character Rush. However, both of these adapters place categorical inhibitions on Mega Man's abilities, such as being unable to slide, at the same time as granting him incipient skills. **The "Jet Adapter" sanctions Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become Jet Mega Man (ジェットロックマン Jet Rockman) and, in this form, Mega Man is equipped with the "Jet Booster," which sanctions him to hover for short periods of time. **The "Power Adapter" sanctions Mega Man and Rush to fuse and become Power Mega Man (パワーロックマン Power Rockman). In this form, Mega Man is equipped with the "Super Knuckle", a potent short-range attack that repels foes and breaks blocks. **The "Super Adapter" introduced in Mega Man 7 sanctioned the engenderment of Super Mega Man (スーパーロックマン Super Rockman). This form rudimentally cumulates the Jet and Power adapters, giving him both abilities. **A final adapter functioned as a Hyper Combo in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. Mega Man cumulates with the three characters Rush, Eddie, and Beat to become Hyper Mega Man, where he grows in size and elongates wings and a rocket pack from his back. He will then utilize a puissant blast from his arm cannon with rockets emanating from his shoulders, boots, torso and back as well. *Mega Man has withal exhibited the ability to teleport, though conventionally into or out of a caliber during gameplay, as a streak of light colored identically tantamount to the character. Weaknesses While Mega Man has no special impuissances, certain environment-cognate traps can cause him to explode. For example, spikes and pitfalls cause any playable character to die upon falling in, Mega Man included. Mega Man can forfend himself from spikes by equipping Shock Sentinel barriers. However, not all spikes are lethal, some merely inflicting damage rather than instant eradication. Additionally, a substantial amount of lava/magma can cause Mega Man to explode. However, diminutive amounts (such as projectiles) will only harm him. In the pristine Mega Man game, Mega Man may have been designed to fit in with the impotency order, as he takes 10 units of damage from both the Ice Slasher and Thunder Beam. Mega Man takes far less damage from these weapons in the PSP remake, Mega Man Powered Up, as well as other games those weapons appear, like Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Gallery Category:Capcom Characters Category:Mega Man Characters Category:Nintendo Entertainment System Debut Category:All Characters